featured paintings of bold color she created while she was staying in Honolulu. There was evidence of her stay in Hawaii because many of her paintings featured different aspects that one would find in island life, like the dress, food and plants. Specifically, one of the features of this exhibit was a large still life that depicted a fruit on a table. In 2001 her work was exhibited at Mission San Juan Capistrano in California, U.S. The primary color that Alvarez used to express herself was green which to her represented joy, love, hope, youth and mirth. These colors were played out on a stage of canvasses in the forms of universal ideals and archetypes: the child, the innocent maiden, the temptress, the faithful wife, the spiritual seeker, the earthbound spirit in limbo, and the liberated spirit that has transcended Earth's constraints. Alvarez painted into her sixties and seventies. Her works included Impressionism, as well as to figure, still-life, and portrait painting. Her late pieces are focused on religious and symbolic themes. The later years of her life were spent in a retirement apartment and then in a nursing home. She died on March 13, 1985, at the age of ninety-three in Los Angeles. Notable collections Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California References Bibliography Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778–1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, p. 247–248. External links Artwork of Mabel Alvarez American women painters 1891 births 1985 deaths American people of Asturian descent American people of Spanish descent Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts Painters from California Painters from Hawaii 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists Hispanic and Latino American artists